Circular loom



P. BURNEL CIRCULAR LOOM April 14, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 25. 1960 April 14, 1964 P. BURNEL 3,128,795 CIRCULAR LOOM Filed July 25, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Apl -il 14, 1964 P; BURNEL 3,128,795

CIRCULAR LOOM Filed- July 25, 1960 a Sheets-Sheet 3 United States Patent Office 3,128,795 Patented Apr. 14, 1964 3,128,795 CTRCULAR LOOM Philippe Eurnel, 1 bis Blvd. Richard Wallace, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Filed July 25, 1960, Ser. No. 44,974 Claims priority, application France Aug. 4, 1959 5 Claims. (Cl. 139-13) This invention relates to a conventional circular loom in which the shuttle carriers are driven by the intermediary of driving gear wheels carried by vertical spindles disposed exteriorly to the trajectory of said carriers and including pairs of warp guide tubes mounted to oscillate in opposite directions between two positions.

One of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a circular loom with a higher speed of rotation, that is to say to bring the speed up from the usual range of 100-200 rpm. to 360- r.p.m. and beyond.

Another object of the invention is to provide a loom capable not only of weaving all types of natural, synthetic and metallic yarn of the usual diameters at these increased speeds but also yarns of increased diameters, for example up to 30/100 mm. for the weft and 2 mm. for the warp.

A further object of the invention is to enable the loom to use pirns and creel bobbins of increased capacity.

The actual improvements provided by the invention which enable it to fulfill its objects can be divided up into the following three groups:

('1) Improvement of the driving mechanism so that the rotary parts are supported and guided peripherally.

(2) The shuttles and shuttle carriers are disposed and balanced in such a manner that the resultant thrust, due to weight, centrifugal force and thrust of the warp, is taken up by peripheral guides.

(3) An improvement in the shedding mechanism whereby chatter in the reciprocating parts due to inertia, play and friction are reduced.

One embodiment of the invention is now described for example only with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings are not on the same scale and the relative proportions of the parts also vary from drawing to drawing.

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a sector of the shedding mechanism, the shuttle and the sectors which carry them not being shown.

FIGURE 2 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, along the lines x, 0y of FIGURE 1, the left part of FIGURE 2 corresponding to the partial section 0x and the right part to the partial section 0y.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective showing the rockers, push rods and tubes in perspective, one rocker partly broken away.

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of a detail somewhat distorted for the sake of clarity.

The loom is driven by a variable speed motor 1 (FIGURE 1) through a pinion 2 driving a gear ring 3 with internal teeth. This gear ring is attached to a gear ring 4 with external teeth.

Two eccentrics 9 and '10 are keyed on a common shaft 11, which is solid in rotation with the ring, or driving wheel 4, and are provided with ring followers 5 and 6 mounted on them on ball races 7 and 8. A series of rotary spindles or rotary guides such as 12 are journalled in the frame 13. The spindles 12 are provided with pinions 1'4 engaging the gear ring 4, and waisted rollers 15 serving to support and guide the ring 3 peripherally, said ring having, as shown, a peripheral surface, the form of which corresponds to the form of the guides.

The radial depth of the waist of the roller 15 corresponds to the height of the teeth of the pinion 14 in order to ensure that the guiding is accurate and the meshing takes place at the major diameter of the teeth. One skilled in the art will understand that, by the provision of separate guiding means and driving means, the thrust supported by the driving gear is independent of the speed, which thus may be increased.

Likewise there is a waisted guide roller 16 and a pinion 17 mounted on the upper end of each spindle 12 and idler rollers 21 which are waisted like the waisted rollers 16 for guiding element 18 are provided. Said rollers 21, as shown, are pivoted on the frame I13 and are respectively in line with rollers 16. The pinion 17 serves to drive the usual sectors such as 18 carrying the shuttle 19 while the rollers 16 serve as guides to the sectors 18 which, as shown, have peripheral surfaces corresponding to the form of the guides. The shuttle carrier as a whole is denoted by 20.

The weight of the shuttle and carriers 1 and the position of their centres of gravity are so selected that however much weft the shuttle is carrying the centrifugal thrust is much greater than the force necessary to draw out the weft thread 22 and so that there is a reversal of the resultant forces and the rollers 21 are not subjected to any axial or radial thrust, the thrust created being entirely taken up by the waisted rollers 16 on the spindies 12.

This enables the dimensions of the rollers 21 to be kept small so that they can be placed with their bearings between the warp threads on the one hand and the push rods and rockers (to be described below) on the other, without disturbing the regularity of the warp threads.

FIGURE 1 shows a partial view of the loom with three groups of spindles 12 and rollers 21 in plan view. The usual arcuate portion of the sector constituting the shuttle carrier subtends an angle greater than the angle subtended by three groups of pinions 21--12, so that the sector is always engaged by at least two pairs. As

shown in this figure there are five groups of associated rockers 25 and 26 carrying warp guide tubes 23, 24, between each pair of adjacent spindles 12.

The functioning of the rockers is now described with reference to FIGURES 2 and 4. Each of the rockers 25, 26, has a steel tube 23, 24, through which the warp ends pass, as in the conventional circular loom, the warp being delivered by any suitable device of common practice in the art. The rockers are supported by rockers 25, 26 pivotally mounted on the fixed frame by means of an axis 27 and ball bearings 28. The rockers of a pair are each supplied with facing level gear teeth, see FIG- URE 3, which mesh with a bevel pinion 29 journalled in a cage-type needle bearing 30 in the frame 13. The result is that as each rocker is pushed by its push rod the tube associated with that rocker is lowered and the other rocker is rocked by the action of the bevel gear means so that the other tube is raised. The rods 31 and 32 can only push so as one rod pushes its rocker to lower its tube, the other rod is pushed by the other rocker so the ends of the rods remain seated against the abutment at each end.

The push rod 32 bears at each extremity, with a ball 33, on a thrust ball bearing, one of the thrust ball bearings being carried by rocker 26, the other carried by the cam 5. The push rod 31 bears, similarly, with balls 36 on a thrust ball bearing 37 carried by the rocker 25, the other carried by a piston 38, which is resiliently mounted in a cylinder in the ring 6 by means of a spring pack 40. The end of the cylinder forms an abutment 39.

The follower rings 5 and 6 (FIGURE 4) are prevented -from rotating epicyclically by two pantograph linkages 41 and 42.

The centres of 0 and t) of the eccentrics 9 and 10 move around the centre of rotation 0. In consequence the ends of the push rods 31 and 32 describe two circles such as a and a respectively.

The eccentricity of the two centres 0 and 0" are exaggerated in the showing in FIGURE 4.

The reciprocating mechanism of the loom described above functions almost without friction and without permanent internal tension stresses. The rockers are positively driven with little friction, the parts .38, 39, and 40 being incorporated to compensate for wear or inaccuracies.

What I claim is:

1. A circular loom including shuttle carriers, means including a first internal series of waisted shuttle supporting rollers mounted for idle rotation in a fixed frame, and an external second series of waisted shuttle supporting rollers mounted on vertical spindles, said second series of rollers carrying pinions for driving said shuttle carriers.

2. A circular loom including a shuttle carrier, vertical spindles carrying pinions for driving the shuttle carrier, a driving wheel, and means including a set of waisted rollers carried by said vertical spindles, said driving wheel being guided and supported by said set of waisted rollers.

3. A circular loom having a frame, a rotary drive means, eccentrics mounted on said drive means, ringshaped followers on said eccentrics, push rods actuated by said ring-shaped followers, a pair of warp guide tubes pivotally mounted on the frame to be alternately rocked between two positions by said rods, said rods being cooperatively connected to said guide tubes whereby said guide tubes are actuated by thrusts of said push rods on the corresponding warp guide, whereby said guide is caused to rock, and transmission means provided between the guides of each pair of guides to transmit and reverse the rocking movement of the one guide relatively to the other, and pantograph linkages connected to said rings and to said frame to prevent rotation of said rings.

4. A circular loom having a frame, a driving means, pairs of push rods actuated alternately by said driving means, pairs of rockers pivotally mounted on said frame and each rocker operatively engaged by one of said push rods of a pair of push rods, a warp guide tube mounted on each said rocker whereby said guide tubes are each raised by thrusts of a push rod rocking a rocker in one direction, and transmission means between the rockers of each pair of rockers to transmit and reverse the rocking movement of one rocker of the pair of rockers to the other rocker of the pair of rockers, whereby the guide tubes of each pair of rockers are alternately depressed.

5. The circular loom of claim 2, in which a second set of waisted rollers are mounted on said vertical spindles adjacent said pulleys to engage and support said shuttle carrier.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 522,742 Schuler July 10, 1894 2,589,972 Slowak Mar. 18, 1952 2,869,586 Jasienski Jan. 20, 1959 

1. A CIRCULAR LOOM INCLUDING SHUTTLE CARRIERS, MEANS INCLUDING A FIRST INTERNAL SERIES OF WAISTED SHUTTLE SUPPORTING ROLLERS MOUNTED FOR IDLE ROTATION IN A FIXED FRAME, AND AN EXTERNAL SECOND SERIES OF WAISTED SHUTTLE SUPPORTING ROLLERS MOUNTED ON VERTICAL SPINDLES, SAID SECOND SERIES OF ROLLERS CARRYING PINIONS FOR DRIVING SAID SHUTTLE CARRIERS. 